Tuesday, March 8, 2011

How to Make Felt Fortune Cookies

A simple, fun craft that I enjoy, and that I have written about before, is making felt fortune cookies. I made a batch recently around New Year's for my coworkers. It's a fun gift for New Year's, in keeping with the good fortunes theme, but also great for party favors, wedding favors, or to use as a decoration around the house.

This craft is also easy to do on-the-go, like on an airplane, in a car ride, or while you are waiting around, because it is small and you can transport the materials easily.

Here is how I make my felt fortune cookies, adapted from CraftSanity's tutorial which is where I found the original directions. Mine is a bit more freeform than CraftSanity's, as they use a printed template and measurements. I have found that it's easy enough to keep track of sewing without using a template.

How to Make Felt Fortune Cookies

What you will need:

- Felt, 2 identical sized sheets, any color. I used a tan to start butyou can get creative.

- Thread. Consider a matching or complementary thread. I used metalliccopper for these to offset the tan a bit.

- Sharp scissors

- Sewing needle

- Pin needles

- Large mug (or something circular with about a 4" diameter that youcan trace)

- Pencil

Visualization of the tutorial's steps

1. Start by tracing the circumference of your mug onto one sheet offelt. You can do one circle at a time, but if you are makingmultiples, fit as many circles on

3. Carefully cut out the circles. Cut them as the two layers of feltare pinned to each other. You will end up with 2 identical circleswhich will create one felt fortune cookie. *Don't worry too much aboutcutting a perfect circle yet. You will be able to trim jagged edges atthe end. Just don't cut inside the circle if you can help it.

4. Take your pinned circled felt layers and sew opposing sidestogether around the circumference, leaving about 1 inch open oneither side. You can try using a sewing machine, but I had an easiertime controlling it by hand-sewing.

5. Fold in half so that the middle of the sewn sides are on the fold,and the open sides are now on the "half moon"

6. Sew open layers together. You will now be sewing through 4 layersof felt instead of 2 layers. Ultimately, it will look like acontinuation of your first sewing step. You will end up with two openedges, one on each side.

7. Bend cookie into fortune cookie shape and secure the middle with afew stitches. This can be a little tricky, as you are maneuvering theneedle inside the cookie.

8. Write fortunes, place in cookies, and give to friends!

Writing fortunes is the fun part. You can be silly or insightful, or alittle of both. Some of my favorites are: